Roaring Mountain Water - Constructive advice welcomed

[Kathy O]

I gave my heart to the mountains the minute I stood beside the river with its spray in my face and watched it thunder into foam, smooth to clear glass over sunken rocks, shatter to foam again. I was fascinated by how it sped by and yet was always there; its roar shook both the earth and me.
-- Wallace Stegner

[FootLoose]

Nice work, Kathy. I can feel the energy of the river in the first image. I'm not sure about the tree branch hanging down, though. I would have liked to see more of those vertical tree trunks soaring skywards in the background. Their solid, stoic posture offers a good contrast to the rushing water.

[Kathy O]

Nice work, Kathy. I can feel the energy of the river in the first image. I'm not sure about the tree branch hanging down, though. I would have liked to see more of those vertical tree trunks soaring skywards in the background. Their solid, stoic posture offers a good contrast to the rushing water.

Thank you Greg, I appreciate your imput

[Geoff F]

The first one is an impossible scene to expose correctly. You need a fast shutter speed to sharply capture that quick moving water so there is a bit of blur there. I suppose you could have gone for a longer exposure and let the water totally blur, although I like my water/surf to look sharply natural.

Number 2 is the better image for me. A nice composition.

[Kathy O]

The first one is an impossible scene to expose correctly. You need a fast shutter speed to sharply capture that quick moving water so there is a bit of blur there. I suppose you could have gone for a longer exposure and let the water totally blur, although I like my water/surf to look sharply natural.

Number 2 is the better image for me. A nice composition.

Thank you Geoff for your input, I still struggle to get super sharp images - I shall keep trying

[Manfred M]

There's nothing wrong with these images that a little dodging and burning won't help with. Some of the dark shadows should be lifted a bit to open up some of the dark areas of these images.

I find that the opening in the sky in the second one is a bit distracting, so working that to darken it and bring out more texture in the clouds is a win-win approach.


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[Kathy O]

There's nothing wrong with these images that a little dodging and burning won't help with. Some of the dark shadows should be lifted a bit to open up some of the dark areas of these images.

I find that the opening in the sky in the second one is a bit distracting, so working that to darken it and bring out more texture in the clouds is a win-win approach.


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Appreciate your thoughts Manfred Thank you.

[NorthernFocus]

Lovely scenery. I really like the composition in the second shot with the river flow starting in the distance in center frame and then filling the foreground completely. As Manfred pointed out the sky is a bit distracting. Either eliminating it out of the composition, using a graduated ND filter, or darkening it in post processing would improve the image IMO. The first image captures the power of the flow. I agree with the prior comment that composing to keep the branch from imposing quite so much on the frame would have been advisable. And lifting the shadows per Manfred's edit is a big improvement.

[Round Tuit]

I really like the perception of depth in the first photo and I think that the foreground branch might be contributing to create that effect. Whether it needs to be quite as prominent is obviously open to interpretation. The second photo is also lovely. I agree that the sky is problematic and I would crop to a panoramic format to eliminate it. I think this would result in a better balanced photo and give greater prominence to the flowing river.

[Kathy O]

Lovely scenery. I really like the composition in the second shot with the river flow starting in the distance in center frame and then filling the foreground completely. As Manfred pointed out the sky is a bit distracting. Either eliminating it out of the composition, using a graduated ND filter, or darkening it in post processing would improve the image IMO. The first image captures the power of the flow. I agree with the prior comment that composing to keep the branch from imposing quite so much on the frame would have been advisable. And lifting the shadows per Manfred's edit is a big improvement.

Thank you so much for your advice

[Ike Harel]

Hello Kathy,
I find both your original pictures in fine outcome: The upper picture have natural shadows typical of such a forest surrounding's, and good dynamism by the roaring water.
The lower photo is well shown uphill's towards the small sky part, which added good sense of depth to the scene, and the scaled heights on different levels of the terrain and the cascade flow downhill in contrast.
Would not change a bit. Just marvelous.
Ike

[Kathy O]

Hello Kathy,
I find both your original pictures in fine outcome: The upper picture have natural shadows typical of such a forest surrounding's, and good dynamism by the roaring water.
The lower photo is well shown uphill's towards the small sky part, which added good sense of depth to the scene, and the scaled heights on different levels of the terrain and the cascade flow downhill in contrast.
Would not change a bit. Just marvelous.

Thank you for your input!!

Ike